Signs the Economy is Bad: July 9, 2021 edition

 Welcome to another edition of "Signs the Economy is Bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is the semi-regular (as in when I have time and/or feel like doing it) feature where I scour the Internet in search of the oh so subtle hints that the economy is bad. Sure, pundits may say things are getting better, but what do they know? And to show not all is bad, once in a while we look at how good the uber rich have it.

 

 

Let's have a look at what we found this week. Among other things featuring wee woo wagons, payola, and snow leopard poo this week.  

Education News

•  In a moment of "I can't imagine why" it turns out that a lot more superintendents are quitting their jobs. Via The Rural Blog. I am willing to bet that pressures of keeping things in some degree of stability in the hellscape that has become the U.S. under the pandemic is driving this situation. As it often happens in the field of school education, one factor driving the superintendents to quit are the whiny often self entitled parents making their work more difficult. That is something superintendents share in common with classroom teachers: the often pain in the ass parents who love to whine but would never dream of stepping into a classroom to teach themselves. I know; I was a school teacher once. Another issue is that once those superintendents leave, it is extremely hard to find a replacement. 
• Ithaka S+R has a new report out on the "Big Deal." For folks outside academia and especially academic libraries, "big deal" often refers to the deals libraries have to make with the monopolistic publishing pillagers who own the journals needed for research where faculty (unpaid) also need to publish (that is another story). For folks who need a quick overview: Big deals "enabled academic libraries of all sizes to license bundled access to a publisher’s journal at a significant discount off the list prices. Over the years, as Big Deal spending has come to occupy a greater and greater share of materials budgets, libraries have come to question the value of their Big Deal subscriptions, with some opting to cancel or significantly alter their existing arrangements." 
• In a nutshell, costs of these subscriptions have grown obscenely to the point they are become unsustainable, and publishing companies could not care less as they keep basically pricing themselves out. In my small campus, for the most part, we are looking at anything and everything we can cut in order to save money, we are buying less books and media because we have to sustain the damn periodical subscriptions, and well, something has to give. This is not something I often talk about, and to be honest, talking about it would be better suited for my professional blog, but it is an important issue and concern. That is why it qualifies as one of the signs the economy is bad. Then again, higher education media mostly focuses on large R-1's (that is Research-1 institutions in the Carnegie scale for those of you not in academia, i.e. "the big boys") when one of them finally does a massive cancellation. A small place like mine is really under their radar. I am highlighting the Ithaka S+R report now, but it is one I need to read deeper, and I think others in academia, especially in academic libraries, need to read as well. 
• In what is a given that many took for granted, CNN noticed that yes, many people did turn to public libraries during the pandemic. They then ask if said libraries will get some credit. Let me save you a click on that: the answer is no. People either take public libraries for granted, thinking they will always be there, or they constantly bitch and moan about how they do not want their taxes to pay for public libraries that deadbeats and homeless bums inhabit. Those latter folks are the ones who usually brag they just buy their books from the Big A. At any rate, libraries often were declared essential services and remained open to the best of their ability despite the pandemic. Librarians and library staff often risked their lives while self entitled COVIDIOTS refused to wear masks or socially distance or show any consideration while using said libraries. When the library buildings did close in some places, those libraries still offered curbside services and online options. Overall, libraries went and continue to go above and beyond the call of duty serving both appreciative people as well as ungrateful assholes who brag they'd love to burn the library down on social media while using their local library's free wifi. 
• On a side note, I was declared essential at my library, so I worked through the pandemic. We did offer and continue to offer an array of virtual services for our students and academic community. I will say that yes, very often I did feel very much taken for granted (but again, that is another story). 
• On another side note, science fiction writer John Scalzi, who is very well off, wrote his personal history of libraries and towards the end of the essay he makes the point of why he, as a wealthy person, wants public libraries to still exist even as he himself might not need them anymore (or need them less than he used to). It is worth reading. By the way, one of these days I should write my own personal history of libraries, but that is another time. 
• In the Library With a Lead Pipe has a piece on "Service Ceiling: the High Cost of Professional Development for Academic Librarians." This is one I wanted to highlight, but I admit have not had time to reflect on it as much as I would like. I can tell you though as an academic librarian myself that said cost is often high and often obscenely prohibitive. I feel bad for academic librarians with service requirements that force them to go to expensive conferences and such with little or no institutional support, which means they often have to pay out of their meager pay to keep their jobs. That is just wrong. This is another of those things I could write a bit more about in the professional blog, but I just do not have the time now. But it is a sign of the bad economy, even if most people outside academia have no idea. Although this is not unlike public schools that force their teachers to also do professional development out of pocket and buy their own school supplies out of pocket, but that is another story. 
• Via the Chronicle of Higher Education, a concern about MIT and Harvard selling out edX, a course management platform, to private interests. The edX company was nonprofit, well, those days will be gone. This falls under one of those things that was possibly a public good being privatized, which means most likely the emphasis now shifts from serving students online to maximizing shareholder value, whatever that is.
  

 

 

 

Rural News

•  Via NPR, a report that "rural emergency medical services are at risk as volunteers age and expenses mount." They may be volunteers, but rest assured, if I need a wee woo wagon, they are certainly going to bill me an obscene price for that ride. Odds are that money goes anywhere in the insurance bureaucracy and nowhere near the ambulance service. Anyhow, the big issues is EMT retirements with no replacements in sight and for many rural small areas the service is too expensive to operate.
  

Government News

•  If you wonder what the U.S. Government does with your taxes, well, the Biden administration is proposing to spend 1.3 trillion (yes, that is trillion with a "t") on defense and nuclear weaponry. Story via Scheerpost. Because the president of the party that is, allegedly (LOL) supposed to care for things in the common good is basically proposing the largest historically speaking budget for defense. We have a pandemic, a literal bad economy, all sorts of social issues but the milquetoast Republican Lite centrist is laying it on thick for defense, military, and nuclear weapons spending. Well, at least it keeps the military industrial complex employed. 
• On a side note, I am reminded of this quote from Joe Haldeman's The Forever War:“The most important fact about the war to most people was that if it ended suddenly, Earth’s economy would collapse.”
•  Meanwhile, Medicare might not be able to do basic things like negotiate for decent drug prescription pricing for the people it covers, but it is spending quite a bit on drugs that do direct to consumer advertising. Report via the GAO (Government Accountability Office).
  

 

 

 Health and Medical News

•  Via Al Jazeera, reports that Walmart is launching a "low-priced" in house brand of analog insulin. "Low price" is used loosely given their proposal for "analog insulin vials that sell for $72.88 and a FlexPen priced at $85.88." It may be cheaper than corporate options now, but affordable for many not really no matter how they spin it. 
• In news that are not really surprising, device makers are engaged in some serious payola to orthopedic surgeons to get them to use their products when doing surgeries. Via Salon. This is the kind of thing seen before with pharmaceutical companies and their drug reps "visiting" doctors to promote their drugs and get them to prescribe them. In an extreme, that was one way the opioid epidemic got so bad: certain companies aggressively pushing for doctors to prescribe their products. So this new story is just another variant on that. How do some of the payments work? "These payments come in various forms, from royalties for helping to design implants to speakers' fees for promoting devices at medical meetings to stock holdings in exchange for consulting work, according to government data." So if you need a hip replacement, you may want to inquire deeper if your surgeon is using a reasonably priced product or just whatever he is paid to put in you.
• In other medical rip offs, 1 in 5 families report getting surprise bills after childbirth. Story via UPI. This can happen, for instance, if you go to you in insurance network hospital, but say your little lady needs (or really wants her epidural/anesthesia, and you are not about to tell her to go natural because you want to walk out of the hospital alive), and they bring in some doctor from outside the network to do it, and the mofo hospital does not put it in the bill, so the doctor bills you separately, and surprise. You had no fucking idea this was going to cost you more, and you thought your insurance picked it up in network. Surprise.
  

 

 

The Bad Economy Around the World

 

•  The United Nations reports that COVID-19's impact on tourism around the world could be upwards of $4 trillion in losses. 
• Speaking of hospital fuckery (oops, entrepreneurial initiatives), The Guardian reports on how U.S. private hospitals, dens of expensive medical for profit fuckery (yea, I am saying it now) are eyeing opening locations abroad, this time in Great Britain. Because that is just what a country with relatively decent national universal care needs: private hospitals trying to gauge people for medical services. 
• In some places, senior citizens bag groceries in order to make a few extra bucks. Well, not happening anymore in Mexico's Walmarts as they basically told their senior baggers, who by the way work on tips, i.e. Walmart does not employ nor pay them, to take a hike. Story via Al Jazeera. Walmart is spinning it as blaming the pandemic and "consumer's changing shopping habits." Uh huh. 
• Meanwhile in Venice the locals struggle with the tourist economy. Story via Hyperallergic. The big conflict is that the city is seriously dependent on tourism, but the problem is tourism related jobs pay little, to the point that locals are barely able to afford living there. 
• Out in Japan, here is another way to tell the economy is bad and the world is in trouble due to things like climate change: look at snow leopards' poo. Story via UPI. In Japan, researchers have found an easier way to measure snow leopard stress by analyzing their fecal matter with an new quicker analysis technology. Why is this important? "Environmental stressors, like rising temperatures, disappearing glaciers and poaching, can negatively impact snow leopard health."